Establishing Data Integrity in a Large Decentralized School District to Support Research on Equity in Computer Science Enrollments

摘要

This experience report highlights the benefits and costs associated with a decentralized organizational model in the early adoption of Computer Science curriculum in secondary schools. Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD), a large urban school district, in partnership with Cleveland State University, and other community partners has implemented a district-wide initiative to implement opportunities for all students in all secondary schools to participate in a variety of Computer Science courses. CMSD's organizational structure supports local decision-making, which has afforded a high level of flexibility to schools to explore a range of traditional and emerging CS courses.While this flexibility has been advantageous to innovative approaches to CSforALL, it is not without a cost. Foundational research needed within this RPP is to study the size and diversity of student enrollment across the district. Course codes and names are created in a centralized location with little consideration to character sequence or formatting, but are assigned locally through decentralized curriculum decisions. Without codes for similar courses, we cannot determine with reliability what type of experience the students had and thus cannot speak to equitable access.To address this, this work documents a systematic review of the course data. Results include short term fixes, recommended solutions, and best practices.